[Short and intermediate-term hemodynamic study at rest and during exercise of cardiac insufficiency treated by...

Administration of 25 mg of captopril to 10 patients with heart failure (NYHA II, III) produces at rest after 60 min bradycardia (-7 per cent, p less than 0.01), hypotension (-8 per cent) and improvement of the preload (-30 per cent, p less than 0.01). This effect is still apparent after two months of treatment where PAP is decreased by 20 per cent (p less than 0.05). A prolonged effect of captopril is present in these 10 patients. The capacity to perform a muscular exercise on an ergometric bicycle is prolonged by 10 per cent (p less than 0.01) on the first day and by 18 per cent (p less than 0.01) after two months of treatment. This improvement seems to be related to improvement of the hemodynamic parameters, especially of preload indices. In 5 patients, lactacidemia, the arterio-venous difference and the extraction coefficient of O2 were studied at rest and during exercise. No significant difference are noted after the treatment with the inhibitors of conversion enzymes.